Am I Crazy?

If you’re one of my kids, please don’t answer that …

Let me first put some verses that are in my head from the lips of Yeshua Himself from Matthew 6

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

————————————————————

Soooooooo …

In light of the present “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated “COVID-19”) pandemic, how are we to take and apply the words of Yeshua?

Don’t everybody raise their hand at once. If you do, please stay at least 6 feet away from the person next to you.

I know, I know, I’m taking this too lightly.

Actually, I’m not. I act braver than I really am. But, I do have to wonder how we, as God’s people, are to act and respond in relation to the information that keeps coming our way.

Thankfully, I grew up in the day when we didn’t have all this timely, up-to-the-minute reporting of when the guy down the street posted on Facebook the last time he blew his nose. We actually had to wait to find out stuff. And lots of time, by the time information came around it was already becoming old news that had already passed.

Do you remember the Y2K panic that swept across our landscape? Folks everywhere were bracing for the inevitable crash of … everything.

When I was pastor of my church, we had monthly Men’s Meetings. During one of these meetings the men got talking, again, about what was going to happen and the steps they had taken to prepare for the possible fallout. I finally spoke up and said that NOTHING was going to happen. They looked at me like I had just grown a horn on my forehead.

Why did I say that nothing was going to happen? Did I have inside information? No. But, I’m the type that has to be the one lone person that challenges the herd mentality. I have “learned” to be cautious of sudden mass produced and inflated hysteria.

Am I saying ignore it? No.

But what I am saying is that we cannot loose our perspective. We can’t be swayed from our base of belief in the Word of God. We need to be careful we don’t get swept up in the collective mentality.

I have all kinds of thoughts on what is happening now and potentially why. I’m not doubting the reality of the virus and its ramifications. I’m not even doubting that I might get the thing. But, how are we to view what is transpiring with the collective assembling of the whole world into an unprecedented action? How do we maintain our spiritual focus and equilibrium?

We have to know the Word of God.

Folks listen, the end times as the Bible presents it has to get here sometime and somehow. And, what’s going to happen at the end is the coming of two important figures.

The one is the Antichrist.

He has to come at some point. Somebody will be around to experience it. But, I don’t think he’s going to just pop on the scene seemingly out of nowhere. I think there will be a gradual persuasive process that precedes his arrival. In other words, the world will be looking for one leader, one system, one source in which to find comfort, direction, hope. In other words, the world will be programed, and trained to respond as a collective whole. And those that don’t will … die.

The other One is the Christ.

He will be coming at some point in the future as well. He’s the One we should be focused on and looking to. We are to be gazing upwards rather than being so absorb in the horizontal that we only see now. We are to be looking to Him to find our comfort, direction, hope. We can’t become unraveled, aimless, hopeless. That’s not what we are to be. That’s not who we are in Christ.

So while the lost world is busily being swept up into the flow of the herd, it might be good if we step aside for a bit and take assessment of:

What is or is not really happening,

How we are or are not responding in accordance with the Word of God,

And, not be afraid to express our faith and then live it out while all Hell unfolds around us — even if it makes us look stupid or “uncaring.”

I mean, how else are we to take the Words of Yeshua that He gave us in Matthew 6?

Does take no thought mean take no thought? And yes, I know it means don’t be anxious.

Please … don’t get hung up on semantics. To not be anxious means to not be overwhelmed in our thoughts. To not be taken captive by our thoughts. To not be dismantled by our thoughts.

And, believe me I’m fighting it within myself right now. Why? Because I was let go today from my bus job until further notice. GRRRRRRRR!! How am I taking it? Ask my poor wife.

Yeshua told us what to do when that starts to happen. Let it go. Take no thought. Turn it all over to Him. Cast all our care on Him because He cares for us … for you the individual, not just the whole herd of us.

So, am I crazy? You’ll have to decide. If I am, just let me enjoy it.

I think it’ll be less stressful for me

And …

I might use less toilet paper.

[PS: There might be a ton of mistakes and errors in my writing and grammar. If so, please understand my brain is a little fried right now and I just want to get this up.]